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Mar 05

CMU: Lesson 6: Sometimes the best trade is to not trade

Cracked.Market University

Now that we are nearly two full weeks into the Coronavirus crash, collecting profits is going to become a lot more challenging. The first few swings of any crash are the easiest to profit from because the market moves sharply lower, obliterating all rational support levels along the way. But just when all hope is lost, supply dries up and we get a nearly instantaneous rebound that recovers a huge portion of the crash. Unfortunately, this relief rally is short-lived because the market likes symmetry and a crash that goes too far is immediately followed by a rebound that goes just as overboard. That first overbought rebound is followed by an echo crash, followed by another echo rebound.

After a few days of clearly defined crashes and rebounds, the market starts to settle into a wide trading range. While the intensity of these swings starts to moderate, so does the predictability of the moves. Swings that went too far before reversing are now prone to switching directions in the middle of the range. Gone are the clear indications of too far and prices now jump and crash dramatically at seemingly random levels on less than obvious headlines.

While these moves are still profitable for the most nimble of traders, the speed with which these gyrations come and go makes it challenging to consistently stay on the right side of the market. Rather than try to force trades, sometimes the best trade is to simply sit back and not trade. If a person did well and collected nice profits over the last week and a half, it might be time to protect that windfall.

Spend any time in trading circles and you will quickly learn making money in the market isn’t hard. Even the most clueless of traders stumble into great trades. Winning isn’t the problem, it’s losing all of those great profits in the next bad trade. Sometimes we get a little too full of ourselves after a big win. Maybe we are dreaming of cashing in for something big and we need just a little bit more money. Whatever it is that convinces us to push things too far, that next ill-advised trade is what wipes out most of what we just earned.

Trade when you have an edge. But if you don’t have an edge, there is nothing wrong with taking a step back and waiting for a better opportunity. This market is on the verge of getting really choppy and a lot of people who traded the initial crash well are on the verge of giving all of those profits back. Don’t be that guy.

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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Mar 04

How the market’s behavior is going to change over the next few days

By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis

Free After-Hours Analysis

The S&P 500 rebounded from yesterday’s Coronavirus tumble following Biden’s decisive comeback performance in Super Tuesday’s primaries. That said, the Biden bounce was actually short-lived and didn’t last much beyond the open. This market continues to live and die based on Coronavirus headlines. And while those headlines didn’t improve overnight, they didn’t get materially worse either, which at this point, is a good thing. Last week’s tumble from the highs priced in a tremendous amount of bad news and most likely took things way too far. So while the Coronavirus headlines continue to be overwhelmingly negative, the market actually rallied from the lows because things haven’t gotten a whole lot worse.

As I’ve been telling readers since last Monday, this is a volatile market and we should expect sharp moves in both directions. Emotional markets always take things too far. That means crashes that go too low are quickly followed by bounces that go too high. Now that we are a few gyrations into this, expect the size and speed of these swings to moderate. Volatility will definitely remain elevated for a while, but we won’t see violent whipsaws like we lived through last week and the first half of this week.

Unfortunately, those oversized moves were a lot easier to trade than the choppy phase we are moving into. That’s because previously, the market would move from one extreme to the other extreme before changing direction. Now that some of the emotion has moderated, these swings don’t drive as far and that means bounces and breakdowns can also occur in the middle of the range. Just like today’s rebound that took hold well above the prior lows. And the same could happen for the next peak. Rather than stretch all the way to the upper limit, we could stub our toe tomorrow morning and tumble back to 3k.

These erratic and choppy moves are harder to trade and require us to be even more nimble. That means we will make more mistakes and our profits will be smaller. And more than ever, we need to take profits early and often. Wait a couple of hours too long and nice profits will turn into disappointing losses. Just ask yesterday’s gleeful shorts.

If a person collected some really nice profits over the last few days getting ahead of these oversized moves, there is no reason to stick around and trade this chop. In fact, quite a few savvy traders could take the next 10 months off and still finish with an outstanding year. But if a person insists on trading this chop, always be on the lookout for the next reversal. We closed strong today and there is a good chance we will open strong tomorrow. But rather than buy that strength, I would be ready to short it at the first signs of weakness. Short early, start small, only add after the trade starts working, and take profits early. Then repeat in the other direction the next day. While these moves won’t be nearly as profitable as the ones already behind us, there are still profits to be had for proactive traders that know how to manage their risk.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Mar 03

The right way to predict the market

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Cracked.Market University

Q: Is it possible to predict the market?

A: Yes……..and No.

Spend any time in trading circles and invariably someone will scold you for trying to predict the market. “It is impossible!”, they claim. There are even popular books written about how trading is a fool’s errand and beating an efficient market is only possible through random luck. But my retort to these accusations is, “Why is it so hard to predict something when it keeps doing the same thing over and over again?”

The Dow Jones Industrial average stretches back to the end of the 19th century and gives us well over 100 years of price data. Can anyone point to a time in history when a dip/correction/crash wasn’t buyable? Heck, show me a time when buying the top of the market didn’t turn out profitable? (Excluding last week’s selloff since it hasn’t had time to recover yet!)

To me, it is pretty clear, as long as the Dow index and stock market survives, every dip is buyable. (At least until civilization ends and if that happens, people will have bigger things to worry about than the value of their 401k!)

Okay, so if we assume every dip is buyable, when the market dips and we claim the market will eventually bounce back, isn’t that a prediction?

What about when the market opens with a brutal 3% plunge like we saw last Monday? From what I know about markets, extreme moves almost always end in even more extreme moves. There are very few one-day panics and that meant further panic selling was almost guaranteed. That sounds like another prediction to me.

And how about the idea that the market always overshoots. That tells us any selloff almost always goes too far and inevitably snaps back not long after it starts. Isn’t that also a prediction?

Now for the “No” part of my initial answer. While we know with near certainty what the market will do, the challenge is we don’t know exactly when it will do it. It is easy to say, and almost certainly correct, to claim last week’s dip is buyable. The problem is our stock purchases and sales occur at an exact moment in time and the only thing that matters to our bank account is where prices are when we bought and when we sold. (or sold and bought for a short trade)

But just because we don’t know the exact where and when doesn’t mean we cannot make intelligent trades with what we do know. If we know the next move will be huge, but don’t know when it will start or which direction it will go. All we need to do is jump aboard anything that looks like a move in one direction or the other. Keep a nearby stop. And see what happens. While we might get shaken out a time or two by some head fakes, as long as we start small, buy smart, and keep a nearby stop, any initial losses are trivial. Especially compared to the towering profits by being in the market at the right time and pointed in the right direction.

While I cannot tell you exactly what level the market will close at tomorrow. I cannot even tell you if the day will finish red or green. But I can tell you tomorrow’s move will be big and volatile. That information is tradable and most likely very profitable for anyone with a sensible trading plan. I didn’t know last week’s selloff would fall all the way to 2,855.84, but I didn’t need to know that in order to profit from the four consecutive violations of the previous day’s close.

And the same goes for buying Friday’s bounce. I was wrong buying the four prior bounces, but as long as I started small, bought right, and kept a nearby stop, eventually I was in the right place at the right time and rode Monday’s tremendous move higher.

While it has been a great week for many of us, rather than be lulled into complacency, I know any bounce wouldn’t last and is why I was happily taking profits yesterday afternoon when everyone else was breathing a sigh of relief.

Predicting the market isn’t hard. We just need to know our history and follow a sensible trading plan.

What comes next? Easy, a lot more volatility. Figure out how to trade sensibly that and you will be golden. (Easy, buy the dips, sell the rips, take profits early and often, and repeat as many times as the market allows us.)

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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Mar 02

Lesson 2b: What it really means to trade proactively

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Cracked.Market University

I often say, “Trade proactively, not reactively.” This is even the second rule on my list of 23 Trading Rules. But in extremely volatile markets, it warrants expanding on what this simple phrase actually means.

The longer version is, “Trade proactively based on a sensible trading plan, not reactively by listening to your tardy emotions of fear and greed.”

While this expanded rule isn’t as catchy as the original, it makes a lot more sense in crazy volatile markets. That’s because in unpredictable times, we need to be reacting to the market’s moves, just not in the traditional sense.

Traditional “reactive trading” is making tardy decisions when the pain of regret overwhelms us. This is selling after markets already collapsed and we are “afraid things are going to get worse”. Or buying long after the breakout is obvious and we are “afraid of missing out”.

Reacting emotionally to the market’s moves long after they happen is trading a day late and a dollar short. To be clear, we should never allow ourselves to fall for these tardy trading decisions because they are extremely expensive and our regret is often compounded when the market turns against us a second time (i.e. bailing out just before the rebound or chasing a huge breakout right before the pullback).

If that’s the bad kind of reactive, what is the good kind? Proactive. Moving early. Before it is obvious to everyone. The key is not moving based on gut or intuition, but a thoughtful trading plan. One that we came up with when we were relaxed and deliberate in sketching out our trading decisions.

This is important because in crazy emotional markets, we cannot use conventional trading rules. Support/resistance/etc, none of that matters when the crowd is losing its mind. These huge disruptions move markets further and faster than anyone imagines possible. We need a trading plan that accounts for these extreme moves. The only way to do that is to throw out the conventional rules and react to the market proactively.

Last week’s selloff obviously went too far, too fast and everyone knew a sharp bounce was coming. The problem is no one knew when. Buy the dip a little too early and you watch devastating losses pile up. Get in a little too late and most of the discounts are long gone. And worse, if you are really late, you could be jumping in moments before the next collapse.

If we know the market is going to make a huge move but we don’t know when, the easiest way to trade it is to jump on every move early and see what happens. The market easily could have bounced last Monday morning and that dip was definitely worth buying. But as it turned out, that wasn’t the bottom. But if we started our trade small, got in early, and had a sensible stop, we would have gotten knocked out with a minor loss. And not only that, if we were aggressive, we shorted the violation of the prior lows while waiting for the next bounce. Then we get to do this all over again Tuesday. Cover the overnight short for a healthy profit, buy the first bounce, start small, and keep a tight stop. If that was the bottom, great. If not, short the next violation of prior lows. As it happened this time, we got to repeat this process Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday.

As it turned out, I spent all week trying to buy the inevitable bounce and while I was wrong 4 out of 5 times, my thoughtful trading plan kept racking up a pile of money on my shorts. But that dip-buying persistence finally paid off Friday when the market bounced from those early lows and didn’t fizzle. One day later and we are 250-points above Friday’s opening lows. Not bad.

Not very often can we be wrong all week but still make a pile of money. But I had a sensible, thoughtful, and proactive trading plan. That was the difference between making money last week and getting killed.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 28

CMU: The biggest way people screw up market meltdowns (besides freaking out)

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Cracked.Market University

CMU: The single biggest way people screwup market meltdowns (besides freaking out)

Generally speaking, there are two main groups of people in the market, long-term investors and short-term traders. One person buys stocks at attractive prices, holds for multiple years, and profits when the rest of the world finally figures out what they knew a long time ago. The other person takes advantage of daily price swings and will hop in and out of the market countless times a year. The one thing they have in common? They both screwup market meltdowns (but in the opposite way).

First, the long-term investor. He plans to hold for long periods of time and ride through these periodic gyrations. He doesn’t care what the market is doing now, only where it is years from now when he sells. Or at least that is what he is supposed to do. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way.

All too often, these long-term investors follow the news a little too closely. They read headlines screaming Coronavirus, bank defaults, rate-hikes, socialists, or any of the countless other reasons investors fret. Once prices start crumbling, their confidence cracks and they start wondering if they should be worried. Prices fall a little further and that wonder turns to fear. A little lower and panic sets is. Long gone are thoughts of holding for the long-term and now all they can think about is watching even more of their net worth evaporate. If they don’t act now, things will only get worse. There is no greater fear than the fear of regret and finally, the confident long-term investor turns into a fearful seller.

Of course, by the time the long-term investors reaches his breaking point, stocks have fallen a long, long way. In fact, they have fallen so far that often they are not far from the ultimate capitulation bottom and rebound. But he doesn’t know that. All he knows is he wants to get out and he won’t be able to sleep until he does.

Now for the short-term trader. He darts in and out of the market with the greatest of ease. Things like market meltdowns don’t bother him. In fact, he roots for them because he thinks they are a great way to make big profits. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out so well for many of them. It starts out well enough. The market dips like it has a thousand times before. Buy the dip, sell the bounce, repeat until wealthy. But this time, the dip doesn’t bounce when it is supposed to. Well, that’s okay, he got in a little early and all that means is he needs to wait a little longer before the bounce. But the next day, price falls even further. Now things are definitely not looking good. But he tells himself he can manage this, he doesn’t want to be that guy who loses his nerve and sells moments before the inevitable bounce, so he keeps holding. But rather than bounce, the market tumbles again the next day. Now his losses are so big he has no choice but to keep holding. Everyone knows it would be foolish to sell at these levels. He should be buying this dip, not selling like all the other emotional cowards. And yet, prices keep falling and he keeps holding.

Long and short-term investors get killed in market meltdowns because they change their plan in the middle of the trade. The long-term investor loses because he sells too quickly, the short-term trader fails because he holds too long. As the old cowboy saying goes, never change horses midstream. Your trading plan should always account for the inevitable market meltdowns. If your plan is to ride through them, ride through them. If your plan is to get out and go short, get out and go short. Don’t be that guy who reacts emotionally, changes his plan halfway through the trade, and does the exact wrong thing at the exact wrong time.

It’s a market cliche and it sounds corny saying it, but “plan your trade and trade your plan.” There is no more valuable piece of advice a trader can receive than that.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
For less than $1/day, have actionable analysis and a trading plan delivered to your inbox every day during market hours

Follow Jani on Twitter @crackedmarket

Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 27

CMU: Where’s the bottom?

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Free After-Hours Update

As bad as the S&P 500 looks right now, should we be even more afraid of what’s to come? The market attempted its fourth consecutive intraday rebound and unfortunately, that’s also the exact number of failed bounces we’ve seen. Not an encouraging sign.

But here’s the thing about the market, the worse things look, the better they actually are. Prices crashed more than 10% from last week’s all-time highs. But instead of getting riskier, the market is actually 400-points LESS risky. Anyone who buys today is 400-points ahead of the person who bought last week. While no one can predict where this selloff ends, I do know I would much rather buy stocks at 3,000 than 3,400.

Today’s crash was triggered by headlines California is monitoring 1,000 patients for the Coronavirus. That’s well beyond the dozen confirmed cases we’ve been told about. The market loves to get ahead of itself and this week’s selloff is largely driven by fear of what could happen. Traders have a wild imagination and it doesn’t take much to start spinning a picturing of just how bad things could get. But the thing about the market’s imagination, reality almost always turns out far less bad than feared. And even if things get bad, buying here is still getting a 10% discount from where we were last week.

While I would love to be able to consistently pick bottoms, everyone knows that is impossible. If we cannot bottom-tick the market, that means either we get in too early or we get in too late. What a person does largely depends on their time-frame and risk tolerance. Patient, long-term investors should be wading into the mess and buying more of their favorite stocks a little bit at a time. When the market is at 3,500 or even 4,000 next year, will anyone really care if they bought at 3,050 or 2,950? That’s like kicking yourself for buying AMZN at $880 when you could have gotten in at $830. When the stock is near $2,000, who cares? The only thing that matters is you bought.

For short-term traders, these things are a little more nuanced. Emotional selloffs always go too far in one direction before snapping back and going too far in the other direction. Has this selloff gone too far? Probably. Has it gone far enough? Maybe not. But after four days of brutal selling, the next bounce is right around the corner. Obviously it didn’t happen today. But all that means is it will happen Friday. And if not Friday, then Monday.

The best way to swing-trade this stuff is to buy the bounce early, start small, keep a nearby stop, and only add more money after the trade starts working. If you bought too early, like yesterday or today, the late fizzle squeezes you out and you try again during the next bounce. Buying right (ie early) means the losses from these whipsaws is small and trivial compared to the profit potential of catching the next big wave. The most aggressive traders can even short the violations of the prior lows. Keep buying the bounce and selling the violations. Who cares if we make our money on the way up or the way down as long as we are making money. But no matter what you do, don’t get greedy. In markets this volatile, one day’s profit can quickly turn into the next day’s loss. That’s why we take profits early and often. But rather than give up after taking profits, we repeat this whole process again the next day.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
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Follow Jani on Twitter @crackedmarket

Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM $AMZN

Feb 26

CMU: How to Trade Emotional Markets

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Cracked.Market University

CMU: How to Trade Emotional Markets

Traders finally decided the Coronavirus matters and the S&P 500 tumbled 8% from last week’s record close. So much for the calm and complacency that ruled since the October lows. While bears finally get to gloat over being “right”, stocks are still at levels that were all-time highs only a handful of weeks ago. Sure, prices are a lot lower than they were last week, but they are still well above levels when most bears started claiming they were too high.

I don’t mean to single out Bears because Bulls are equally prone to the same ridiculousness. Both sides get hung up on their outlook and spend far too much time justifying why they are right instead of trying to understand why they are wrong. The key to trading successfully is moving past that useless dogma and just be an opportunist. I don’t care if the market is going up or down. It makes no difference to me as long as I’m making money.

During emotion-filled periods like this, my views are definitely in the minority as people spend way too much time explaining why this selloff is either unjustified or just getting started. I have no idea what comes next and no one else does either. Emotional selloffs are the hardest things to predict because they always go “too far” and there is no way to know how far is “too far”. And just when it seems like the sky is about to fall and all hope is lost, the selling capitulates and prices snapback from oversold levels with a vengeance.

I have no idea what this market will do next, but I do know it will go “too far” in one direction and then it will go “too far” in the other direction. Armed with nothing more than that most basic outlook, we can create a fairly sensible trading plan.

If we know a big move is coming, all we need to do is jump on the next move that comes along and see where it takes us. Prices bounced this morning. Great, buy the dip, start small, get in there early, keep a stop near your entry, and only add more money after the trade starts working. If we’re wrong, prices slip under our stop, we take a small loss, and we try again next time. Maybe that is another rebound attempt. Maybe stocks tumble under the lows and we flip to shorting the weakness using the same sensible approach.

It makes no difference to me what the market does next as long as it does something. If you leave your bullish or bearish biases at the door, you can make money too.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 25

Bulls or Bears, who’s right?

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Cracked.Market University

Q: Bulls or Bears, who’s right?

A: Neither

By definition, bulls and bears are married to their positions and will justify them no matter what the market does. When they are right, they gloat. When they are wrong, they argue even harder. Neither approach results in successful trading and if your goal is to make money, you should never fall into this trap.

Successful traders are pragmatic. Three weeks ago, I liked the way the market was setting up and I bought the first Coronavirus dip. That trade turned out brilliantly, rallying nearly 200-points over a couple of weeks. But rather than gloat over my defeated rivals, I recognized good enough when I saw it, collected my worthwhile profits, and started looking for the next trade. That led to my next trade, which, unfortunately, didn’t work out so well. But since I was smart about my initial position size, entry, and stops, Monday’s dip didn’t hurt as much as it could have if I was stubbornly attached to my outlook.

What happens next is where it pays to be pragmatic. Rather than dig in my heels and argue this selloff was unjustified, I recognized the market’s emotional state and knew a great trade was going to explode in one direction or the other. Sometimes these things bounce hard and fast. Other times they keep going. As an opportunist, it made no difference to me which way the market went as long as I was making money.

Yesterday afternoon, I bought the dip when the selling stalled. I started with a small position and a tight stop. Everything was progressing nicely this morning when the market opened modestly higher. But rather than keep going, the rebound stalled and selling resumed. Rather than fight it, I flipped sides. When my stop was triggered, I got out. When the market fell under Monday’s lows, I went short. Bull or bear, it makes no difference to me as long as I’m on the right side of the trade.

And now that we find ourselves on the other end of the spectrum, down 7% from recent highs. Should shorts be gloating? Of course not! There are too many profits at risk to get caught up in this battle over who is right and wrong. Rather than brag about our success, we should be looking for opportunities to lock-in profits. Counter-trend trades bounce hard and fast, meaning anyone waiting for more will soon be left with none. Shorts should recognize their good fortune, look for opportunities to lock-in profits over the next couple of days, and start looking for the next trade. Once this thing gets oversold, it will snap back with a vengeance. Either we profit from the next bounce or we watch all of our profits disappear. You decide.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 24

What it looks like when I’m wrong

By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis

Free After-Hours Analysis

The S&P 500 cratered 3% this morning after Coronavirus anxiety hit full-panic-mode over the weekend. This health epidemic continues to spread beyond Chinese borders. While the number of reported cases outside of China is still quite small, the fact western governments are unable to contain it is leading to some doomsday predictions.

Whether the market is right or wrong about the Coronavirus, it doesn’t matter, we trade the market we are given. As it stands, this 3% kneejerk reaction could go either way. We bounce sharply off the lows and never look back as confident owners continue ignoring every bearish headline. Or this massive strawbale shatters the camel’s back and turns formerly confident owners into a herd of panicked sellers.

Which is it? It is a little premature to say conclusively, but the market’s midday rebound gives us some hope. While there is no telling how far an emotional selloff can go, the fact stocks mostly traded around opening levels is a good initial indication. It signals most owners are staying calm and not rushing for the exits. The midday dip under the opening lows could have triggered another cascade of defensive selling, but within two hours, supply dried up and prices bounce back. It is definitely a tad early to be celebrating, but this is a good first step. Anyone with a little cash can buy the bounce and put a stop under the midday lows. As always, start small and only add to a position that is working. If prices go the other way and violate the lows, a short could position be called for. Times like this, we simply follow the market’s lead.

As for my personal trading, this morning’s tumble caught me off guard. Last Friday I liked the way the market went into the weekend and I put on a small position. I wrote about the reasoning here. The Cliff Note’s version is three weeks ago I had a great trade that started with buying a Coronavirus Friday slump. Two weeks later, the S&P 500 was nearly 200-points higher and I locked in some really nice profits. Last Friday’s setup was similar and presented an attractive opportunity. But as we saw today, there are no guarantees in the market. Luckily, this isn’t my first rodeo and I was prepared for this outcome, both strategically and emotionally.

First, I bought wisely last Friday. I entered nearly the daily lows and even more importantly, I started with a small position. I always start small and only add more money after the trade is working. That way, when I’m wrong, it doesn’t hurt and I’m still in a great position to jump on the next trade. Between experience and modest position sizes, waking up to a morning like this isn’t a big deal. In fact, I’m excited by today’s price action because this volatility screams profit opportunity.

This is definitely a buyable dip, the only question is how low we go first. While I took it on the chin this morning, I actually welcome this dip because there is far more profit opportunity following a 5% plunge than there would have been riding Friday’s 1% rebound.

We don’t get to chose the opportunities the market gives us and we need to be ready for everything. This morning’s tumble got me out of my small position, but as soon as I bailed out, I started looking for the next opportunity to get back in. An aggressive approach is buying the midday bounce with a stop under the lows. Buying this tumble means I can make even more money than if I were originally right about Friday. If I’m wrong, I get squeezed out and try again, this time buying even more attractive discounts.

The key to surviving this game is always trading from a position of strength. We don’t need to be right all the time, but we do need to know how to respond confidently to every situation the market presents us. Many times that response is even more profitable than if we had been right all along.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
For less than $1/day, have actionable analysis and a trading plan delivered to your inbox every day during market hours

Follow Jani on Twitter @crackedmarket

Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 21

Weekly Review and Look Ahead: Should we be buying this dip or selling it?

By Jani Ziedins | Weekly Analysis

Free Weekly Analysis

The S&P 500 retreated from all-time highs set earlier this week as Coronavirus fears came rushing back. While nothing concrete popped up in the headlines, the creeping spread of this epidemic outside of Chinese borders is concerning investors. That said, prices only retreated 2% from the highs, hardly panic material.

Is the market about to fall off a cliff? Some people seem to think so and are abandoning ship before the big crash starts. But is that the way these things normally happen? A crisis happens. The market gives us a few weeks to think about it and lock-in our profits. And then it crashes??? I don’t know about you, but in my nearly three decades of trading experience, when things go bad, they go bad breathtakingly fast. Traders sell first and ask questions later. If you stop to think, you are left behind.

This Coronavirus thing first hit markets back in mid-January. Here we are more than a month later and the crowd is still talking about it. Should we be scared? To be honest, I don’t fear things the market’s been chewing on for this long. The owners who fear these things have been given plenty of time to bail out and they were replaced by confident dip buyers who didn’t mind jumping in front of these headlines. Out with the weak and in with the strong. That’s how news gets priced in. If these dip buyers didn’t care about these headlines when they bought two and three weeks ago, what are the chances they will change their minds now? Pretty small.

Typically, the reaction to a recycling of the same old headlines get smaller over time, not larger. We have the knee-jerk reaction where traders fear the worst. Next comes the “less-bad than feared” relief rally. Not long after we hear the first echo of the initial selloff. But like most echos, the intensity falls off with each reverberation. There is a good chance we are in the middle of the first echo.

Every once in a while, like 20 years once in a while, things actually turn out far worse than feared and prices continue to tumble. That’s what happened during the 2008 financial crisis. Investors thought things were as bad as they could possibly get, yet somehow they ended up getting even worse. That certainly could happen with the Coronavirus if it spreads to the point where hundreds of millions of people are infected. Of course, if that happens, we have bigger things to worry about than this latest swing-trade. We are not there yet and we most definitely shouldn’t trade as if that is where we are headed.

Successful traders focus on the high probability events and trade them when the risk/reward lines up in their favor. If we assume this modest pullback is nothing more than pausing after rallying 200 points to 3,400 resistance and that this Coronavirus echo will be smaller than the initial selloff, we could be very close to the bottom of this dip.

While no one knows what will happen next week, when the probabilities and the prices line up in our favor, we take a chance. A lot of times we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong. But as long as we are smart with our entries and stops, the cost of being wrong is low and if we buy right, the eventual rewards are quite nice.

Over the last few weeks, the way the market went into the weekend was the exact opposite of the way it came out. A “better safe than sorry” dip Friday afternoon was greeted with a relief pop Monday morning when things didn’t get worse. The “there is nothing to worry about” Friday afternoon rally was met with second-guessing Monday morning. Today the market stumbled into the close and if this pattern holds, this was actually a decent entry point because a lot of the selling already happened. If things don’t get much worse this weekend, expect prices to pop Monday.

The best way to buy this dip is to start with a small position and only add more money once the trade is working. Keep a stop under today’s lows. If we get squeezed out Monday, don’t worry about it, pull the plug and try again. Often these rebounds fail once or twice before the real one takes off. But if we are smart about our entires and stops, getting whipsawed a couple of times isn’t a big deal. Good Luck!

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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 20

Should we be selling the dip or buying it?

By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis

Free After-Hours Analysis

The S&P 500 started the day with modest losses and even rebounded back to breakeven. But moments before lunchtime, the crowd got spooked and prices fell off a cliff.

If you believe the financial press, this waterfall selloff was triggered by a renewed fear of the Coronavirus epidemic and the impact it is having on the economy. Were these recycled headlines really worth falling nearly 30-points over just a few minutes? Or was something else at play?

As I wrote previously, here, here and here, this market likes to slow down and consolidate gains near the round 100-point levels. It has been a nice, nearly 200-point rally since the February lows. To expect this rate of gains to continue indefinitely would be a tad nieve.

If the market was going to pause at these levels anyway, it doesn’t really matter what the headlines are. Supply and demand needs some time to catch up and is the real reason stocks stalled under 3,400 this week. If it wasn’t these headlines, it would have been something else. Rally this far and inevitably you run out of new buyers. It is that simple.

Now that we know the real reason behind the market’s stumble, we are in a better position to figure out what comes next. Since this wobble was triggered by a supply and demand imbalance, not a fundamental change in the market’s outlook, this is nothing more than a routine and healthy dip. The kind that bounces within days, if not hours.

If we understand why the market is doing what it is doing, we are far less likely to overreact to these periodic wobbles. If a reader has been following along, they knew this was coming and included this possibility in their trading plan. Hopefully, you were taking some profits proactively last week and had cash ready to buy the dip. If not, don’t worry about it, there is always next time. Just make sure you create a plan ahead of time that includes possibilities like this and you won’t worry about days like today. In fact, you’ll be happy to see them because they are profit opportunities for those of us that come prepared.

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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 19

Making money with TSLA vs the S&P 500

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Cracked.Market University

Alternate title: Why I swing trade the indexes

It is hard to ignore what is going on in TSLA with the stock up 43% this month alone! While it definitely feels like this shocking move left a lot of us behind, should we actually feel bad about missing it?

There are a lot of reasons why I settled on swing-trading the indexes using leveraged ETFs. One of these days I will write more about the fundamental reasons I like this trade. But for today, let’s focus strictly on performance. How does swing-trading the indexes using leveraged ETFs compare to holding a basket of the hottest stocks, including the record setting TSLA?

First, I am only comparing owning the underlying stocks since that is what sane people do. While there are plenty of internet stories of people turning $1,000 of far out of the money calls into a million bucks on TSLA, that is nothing more than gambling with lottery tickets. People who approach the market with such a total disregard for risk management go broke within a year. (There are responsible ways to structure Black Swan trades, but I doubt any of the people making headlines were doing it responsibly.)

Also in the name of risk management, let’s assume any sane person holds a basket of highflying stocks since putting all of their money into a single stock is also reckless. But not to give anything away, this hypothetical person is extremely aggressive and his entire portfolio is concentrated in this market’s hottest trades.

For the sake of argument, let’s say he holds five popular growth stocks: TSLA, NFLX, AMZN, FB, and let’s throw an IPO in there for fun, PTON.

How does this basket of stocks compare to UPRO, the 3x leveraged S&P 500 ETF, since the start of the month?

TSLA: +43% Outstanding!
NFLX: +12% Great!
AMZN: +8% Solid!
FB: +7% Good!
PTON: -17% Can’t win them all.

Average: 12% For only a few weeks of work, that is a fantastic return!

Now for the boring index fund:

UPRO: +16%

Yup, you read that correctly. A borning index ETF outperformed a basket of the hottest stocks, including the nearly unpreceded surge in TSLA. Do I feel bad about missing TSLA? Nope, not in the least.

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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM $AAPL $AMZN $TSLA

Feb 18

Why we don’t need to predict the headlines

By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis

Free After-Hours Analysis

The S&P 500 slipped from record highs following the long Presidents’ Day weekend. The biggest market-related headline was Apple warning investors Coronavirus interruptions would cause the company to miss its revenue forecast. That disclosure renewed concern about the financial impact of this health epidemic half a world away. While today’s headlines and declining stock prices threw some cold water on the market’s previously blasé attitude, a 0.3% decline is hardly panic selling.

As I wrote last Friday, the market is quickly approaching 3,400 and that seems like a good place for the rate of gains to take a break. I didn’t have any insight into this weekend’s headlines, but I didn’t need to. The market is a pendulum and after swinging in one direction, it is only inevitable that it comes back the other way. If it wasn’t these headlines, it would have been something else.

The market receives mixed messages every day. There is never a day when the news is all good or all bad. What matters more than the headlines is where we are in the supply and demand cycle. The higher we go now, the harder it is for us to make that next push higher. Eventually, every wave higher runs out of momentum and the rate of gains either stalls or pulls back. Most of the time it has nothing to do with the headlines the journalists are pointing to. It is simply the laws of supply and demand coming back into balance.

Last Friday I suggested readers lock-in some worthwhile profits. Not because I knew something bad was going to happen. But because it was time. If we are in this to make money, the only way we do that is by selling our winners. Friday felt like a good time to lock-in profits and that’s what I did.

But the thing to remember, once we are out, the very first thing we do is start looking for the next opportunity to get back in. Maybe prices slip a little further and give us a nice dip-buying opportunity. Or maybe prices firm up over the next few days and we consolidate under 3,400. Hold here for a week or two and the market will be ready for its next rally leg. I don’t need to predict what the market will do if I have a trading plan that factors in these different outcomes.

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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM $AAPL

Feb 14

Weekly Review and Look Ahead

By Jani Ziedins | Weekly Analysis

Free Weekly Review and Look Ahead:

It was a good week for the S&P 500 as it put Coronavirus fears out of its mind, gained 1.5%, closed at record highs. While this health epidemic is far from over, previous contagions didn’t have a lasting impact on stocks and traders are assuming the same will happen this time too.

The problem with this optimistic outlook is it already prices in a favorable outcome. With stocks selling at record highs, buyers are not being compensated for holding this risk. While the market will most likely be correct in this assumption, why would anyone want to own the risk if they are not getting paid for it in terms of buying stocks at a discount?

The market’s ambivalence skews the risk/reward against us. With stocks at record highs, the upside is already priced in there is a fair amount of air underneath us. This is skew is even more pronounced ahead of a three day weekend. If things go well over the next three days, that is what the market expects and stocks will rise a modest amount. If something goes wrong, there is a lot of room to fall.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a bear in any shape or form. I actually like this market a lot. The problem is I don’t like paying full price for stocks. I prefer waiting for nervous sellers to give me free money.

The correct time to buy was two weeks ago when fear and uncertainty were peaking. Now that calm and complacency returned, this is the time to be taking profits. Rather than pay premium prices, we should be the ones selling them and that is exactly what I’m doing. This market likes to pause at the round 100-point levels and given the nearly 200-point rebound since the Coronavirus lows, 3,400 is a good place for the market to slow down and catch its breath.

I’m taking some profits off the table proactively and moving the trailing stops up on my remaining positions. We only make money when we sell our winners and for me, this is a good time. While I might be getting out a little early, if the market trades well next week, I can always buy back in.

Enjoy the long weekend.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 13

CMU: The easiest thing you can do to improve your trading right now

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Cracked.Market University

We come to the market with different experience levels, expectations, and needs. But the one thing all of us have in common is the desire to improve our trading. It doesn’t matter if we are struggling or already pretty good at this, everyone wants to be even more successful than they are now.

The quickest and simplest way to improve our trading is to adjust the way we approach the market. Rather than torment yourself and overthink every decision, ask yourself, “What would a savvy trader do here?”

All too often we fall prey to our impulses and emotions. We love the feeling of a winning trade and don’t want to give up on it. But often that means holding too long and watching those profits evaporate. Or we enter into an online argument that makes us even more stubborn and reluctant to admit our mistake. Or we ignore a loss because regret keeps us hoping the rebound is just around the corner.

All of those common mistakes would have been avoided if a person pictured themself as a savvy trader and then made the same decisions a savvy trader would make.

Does a savvy trader brag about his winnings?

Does a savvy trader lock-in worthwhile profits or does he try to squeeze out every last dime?

Does a savvy trader check overnight futures at 3 am because he is worried about his positions?

Does a savvy trader hold losing positions, hoping they will come back?

Does a savvy trader chase the crowd or does he lead the crowd?

Does a savvy trader stay calm and rational no matter what is going on around him?

Does a savvy trader allow a poor trade to affect his mood outside of the market?

Does a savvy trader get discouraged following a loss or does he realize losses are inevitable and calmly move on to the next opportunity?

If you look back at all of your biggest losses, chances are you didn’t do what a savvy trader would have done in that situation. This simple exercise could have saved you a lot of money and heartache. While you cannot do anything about your previous mistakes, it is never too late to use this technique to improve all of your future trading decisions.

None of us are perfect, but it helps us if we aspire to be that perfect trader. Every time you find yourself faced with an important trading decision, ask yourself “What would a savvy trader do here?” Chances are, that is the move you should make.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM $STUDY

Feb 12

Is it finally safe to buy NFLX?

By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis

Free After-Hours Analysis

Is it finally safe to buy NFLX?

Short answer:
Ummmm……No……..

Long answer:
If anyone finds themself asking this question, where have you been the last four months???

Without a doubt, NFLX looks good right now and is finally climbing out of the hole it put itself in last summer. But if a person is only noticing this now, they are a day late and a dollar short……or make that five months and $120 short.

NFLX disappointed investors last summer when its quarterly earnings report fell flat, triggering a long and bloody slide that shaved more than 25% off the stock. But as is often the case, the market overreacted. After two months of relentless selling, long-time bulls finally reached their breaking point last September and unloaded the stock in the biggest three-day selloff since the initial earnings disappointment.

But rather than signal the start of the next leg lower, that frenzied selling represented the capitulation bottom. This is when things finally got “so bad they were good”. And that is exactly what I told subscribers when it happened.

As bad as NFLX looked back then, we should never lose sight of the fact risk is a function of height. The lower a stock falls, the less room it has left to fall. While we cannot use this logic on dying companies and obsolete industries, it works really well when we believe in the underlying fundamentals.

A person with a lot of courage and a sensible stop just under the lows could have bought NFLX last September when everyone else was selling it. The first good sign was when prices refused to undercut the lows and bounced. That was our signal to add more to our initial position. Then, a few weeks later, the company announced earnings in October. But rather than fear another earnings disappointment, savvy investors knew the latest selloff lowered expectations so much that this time around the bar would be far easier to clear. And as expected, the stock popped following earnings.

Unfortunately, nothing is ever easy in the market and regretful owners who bought at much higher prices used that post-earnings strength to finally get out. But as is usually the case, the crowd gets it wrong and that happened again here. Rather than fear another tumble lower, opportunistic investors should have been buying the stock. The worst was already behind it and sentiment had finally turned. From that point on, NFLX has done nothing but climb and today it is within a few points of making all-time highs.

Those that had the courage to go against the crowd are counting their profits. Those that listened to the herd are left wondering what happened. While I still like NFLX at these levels, buying now is definitely late in the game. While the stock will almost certainly continue higher, the easy money is long gone.

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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM $NFLX

Feb 11

Is AMZN the next TSLA?

By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis

Free After-Hours Analysis:

By now everyone is familiar with the wild ride TSLA took investors on and without a doubt, that story is far from over, but I will save that analysis for another day. Today I want to write about AMZN and the hints of similarity its recent price action has with TSLA’s explosive move.

AMZN reported better than expected earnings two weeks ago and the stock popped 10% the next morning. That opening surge put the stock back near all-time highs and it spent a few days consolidating those gains. The initial risk was a conventional retreat that closes the gap, as is typical following big moves. But AMZN bulls are a stubborn bunch and resisted the temptation to take profits. Instead, after a few days, the stock started climbing again. And more than just climb, the last three sessions it started racing higher.

While AMZN has been on my radar for a long time and I told subscriber before earnings that a strong result would push the stock into record territory, this sharp acceleration the last few days really stands out. While I would be suspicious of something like this during more normal times, that buying frenzy in TSLA shows just how extreme buyers are willing to take things.

Now, I need to preface this by saying this is still a remote possibility and I am not predicting this is what will happen. I am simply saying this could happen. And if it does happen, we need to remember AMZN is 10x the size of TSLA and there is no way AMZN can climb 50% in two days. That said, AMZN stock owners are nearly as “cultish” as TSLA owners and this type of fanatical ownership group can lead to some extreme moves. Could we be on the verge of one of these extreme moves? This is really starting to feel like it.

First, there is no way I would want to be short AMZN at these levels. Without a doubt, a lot of TSLA’s lift came at the expense of short-sellers getting squeezed out at steep losses. And we could see a similar phenomenon in AMZN. If you are short AMZN, do something to protect yourself. If you are contemplating shorting AMZN don’t!

Second, if someone wants to get on this ride, remember, this is an extremely risky and low probability trade so adjust your position size accordingly. Start small and only add after it starts working. And not only that, keep a hard stop loss. Probably starting with something near $2050 and then move your stop up as the stock climbs.

And third, this is a quick trade. If this takes off, please don’t fall in love with it. Take profits quickly and don’t feel bad if you sell too early. People who ride these moves all the way to the top inevitably ride them all the way back down. Don’t be that guy.

How high could this go? I have no idea. But if a person has a huge appetite for risk, this could be an entertaining ride. Just be sure to keep your head screwed on tight and don’t fall for the hype if it works out.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM $AMZN $TSLA

Feb 10

CMU: Is the market rigged?

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Cracked.Market University

Spend any time with retail investors and it is almost guaranteed you will hear someone will complain, “the market is fixed.” This is one of the public’s most persuasive myths about the stock market. These people are convinced there is an evil puppet master rigging the system against hem.

My question to these cynics is always, “If you know the market is fixed, why would you do something so stupid as trading against it?” If they know for a fact big money is going to buy every dip, why would they do anything other than buying every dip? Don’t complain, take these valuable insights and profit from them! Complaining about it makes no sense.

In all honesty, I wish the market was fixed. That would make this so much easier. If there was a puppet master pulling the strings, all I need to do is figure out what his intentions are and follow along. Pilot fish swim behind sharks and live off the scraps. I’d be thrilled making a living as a pilot fish following the market manipulators and profiting from their leftovers. Unfortunately, there are no sharks controlling the market for me to team up with.

People think big institutions, high-frequency traders, hedge funds, and even the Fed is conspiring to ruin their trades. But if you spend any time reading the financial press, it doesn’t take long to realize these big institutions and hedge funds struggle with unprofitable trades just as much as we do. If these big players were rigging the system against us, don’t you think they would be making a ton of money? The brutal truth is 75% of professional money managers fail to even keep up with the dumb indexes every year. If these big players are manipulating the market, they sure don’t do a very good of profiting from it.

To be perfectly frank, what people really mean when they claim the market is fixed is, “I lost money and I refuse to take responsibility for my poor trading decisions”. Don’t be that guy! Take responsibility for your bad trades. Own up to them. Learn from them. And most importantly, don’t blame them on anyone else.

Just because your trade didn’t work doesn’t mean someone is out to get you. It simply means you didn’t understand all the factors at play. Learn from those mistakes and do better next time. Victims blame other people, don’t learn from their mistakes, and never succeed in this business. Don’t fall into that mindset.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 07

Is there such a thing as “too good”?

By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis

Free After-Hours Analysis:

The monthly employment report came in better than expected. In fact, the market actually thought it was a little “too good” and the S&P 500 dipped on the news. Traders are not rooting against the US economy but they are leery an overheating economy will pressure the Fed to back away from its accommodative monetary policy.

While people have feared “too good” for years, good news hasn’t held stocks back in more than half a decade. But old habits die hard and people keep reflexively selling good news because they think maybe this is the one that finally breaks this bull. Yeah, I don’t think so. This logic didn’t work last time and there is a good chance it won’t work here either.

Investors are also a little skittish about potential Coronavirus headlines over the weekend. Two weeks ago the market was hammered Monday morning and there is still a little “better safe than sorry” thinking going around the market ahead of this weekend.

But the thing about selling ahead of time is it actually reduces the risk of holding through the weekend. The more stocks go down now, the less room they have to fall Monday morning. This isn’t to say we cannot open even lower, but today’s 20-point decline took some sting out of any headlines that might crop up this weekend. And if nothing bad happens, expect those 20-points to come racing back Monday morning. We fear a market that is oblivious to the risks, not one that is preparing for them.

So far the market is acting really well and anyone who bought last Friday’s dip or this Monday’s bounce is sitting on nice profits. Move your stops up and start reviewing your plan to take profits. When the crowd finally starts thinking it is safe to start buying again is when we want to be selling.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM

Feb 06

CMU: Always have a plan to take profits, TSLA edition

By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU

Cracked.Market University

As I wrote Monday, I like mixing the topic of these posts up a bit more but it is hard to ignore what is going on with TSLA. Not very often do we have the opportunity to witness one of these things blowing up in real-time and be able to dissect it as it happens.

In case you are living under a rock, TSLA had the biggest two-day run in the stock’s history earlier this week, at one point surging nearly 50% from Friday’s close. But as expected, that rate of gains was not sustainable. And not only did the rate slowdown but now it appears like the bubble burst. Wednesday the stock crashed, giving up the majority of those gains in a single session. Thursday’s rebound attempt was valiant but ultimately unsuccessful.

The reason I’m writing this post is because when trading, it is essential we always have a plan to take profits. If someone was fortunate enough to be in TSLA on the way up, great for you. But if you don’t act, it will all be for naught. If we are in this to make money, the only way we do that is by selling our biggest winners.

All too often people get caught up in the moment and start believing the hype. They know something other people don’t. That history doesn’t apply to this particular situation. While part of them deep down knows they should be taking profits, they are so afraid of missing out they cannot bring themselves to do what needs to be done.

Unfortunately for most of the people involved in TSLA’s staggering move this week, everyone who rode it all the way up is now riding it all the way down. As unbelievable as this sounds, at one point Thursday nearly everyone who bought TSLA shares in the best week of the stock’s entire history was sitting on fairly sizable losses. As my dad always liked to remind me after screwing up, easy come easy go.

And I wish I could say the worst was over. Unfortunately these things are even more spectacular on the way down. The market likes symmetry and the fall will be just as jawdropping as the rise. Expect this to go far beyond what anyone thinks possible. Just ask Bitcoin bulls how bad it got after that cryptocurrency fell from its parabolic highs. While I don’t expect the same magnitude of collapse here because Tesla is a real company with real value behind the stock, it will get shockingly ugly before this episode is over.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
For less than $1/day, have actionable analysis and a trading plan delivered to your inbox every day during market hours

Follow Jani on Twitter @crackedmarket

Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM $TSLA

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